More than 40 percent of Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) recipients take opioid pain relievers, while the prevalence of chronic opioid use is over 20 percent and rising, reports a study in the September issue of Medical Care. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
Researchers at Loyola University Health System (LUHS) have a study under way to determine if an injectable anti-inflammatory medication and physical therapy can more effectively treat pregnancy-related pelvic pain than physical therapy alone. They are looking for English-speaking pregnant women between the ages of 21 and 50 who develop certain forms of pelvic girdle pain in their second trimester and who are not currently receiving treatment.
Chronic pain, which persists despite the fact that an injury has healed, can last for many months or years and may affect up to 15 percent of the adult population at any point in time. While it is a condition in its own right, it can be a component of other conditions. Neurostimulation, which involves stimulating pain-sensing nerves to convert painful sensations into nonpainful ones, offers a minimally invasive and reversible alternative to medication. A new report from an international team of experts provides comprehensive information on the safety and effectiveness of this type of treatment for conditions including failed back surgery syndrome and complex regional pain syndrome. More studies are needed for conditions such as peripheral neuropathic pain, postamputation pain and nerve pain from shingles.
Neuromodulation appropriateness consensus committee questions and answers regarding neurostimulation and the committee findings
The Neuromodulation Appropriateness Consensus Committee consists of 60 neurostimulation experts convened by the International Neuromodulation Society to respond to the need to better define use of these advanced medical devices.
Among patients on chronic hemodialysis, those with depressive symptoms and pain were more likely to abbreviate or miss dialysis sessions, visit the emergency department, and be hospitalized. Depressive symptoms were also linked with an increased risk of premature death.
Use of electroacupuncture (EA) – a form of acupuncture where a small electric current is passed between pairs of acupuncture needles – produces significant improvements in fatigue, anxiety and depression in as little as eight weeks for early stage breast cancer patients experiencing joint pain related to the use of aromatase inhibitors (AIs) to treat breast cancer. The results of a randomized, placebo-controlled trial examining the intervention led by researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania are published online this week in the journal Cancer. The study is the first demonstration of EA’s efficacy for both joint pain relief, as well as these other common symptoms.
A simplified anesthesia procedure may enable more widespread use of preoperative testing to demonstrate the cause of airway obstruction in patients with severe sleep apnea, suggests a study in Anesthesia & Analgesia.
As the school year approaches and begins, many parents may start to hear their children complain about headaches.
A telephone-delivered intervention, which included automated symptom monitoring, produced clinically meaningful improvements in chronic musculoskeletal pain compared to usual care, according to a study in the July 16 issue of JAMA.
As cases of Little League Shoulder (LLS) occur more frequently, the need for additional information about the causes and outcomes of the condition has become clear. Researchers presenting at the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine’s (AOSSM) Annual Meeting today shared new data identifying associated risk factors, common treatment options and return to play.
The first genome-wide analysis of postsurgical pain in children has identified gene variants that affect a child's need for pain-control drugs. The findings may advance the process of calibrating pain-medication doses to a child's genetic makeup.
Improvements in implant design have prompted more people with severe arthritis in their ankle to consider ankle replacement to relieve pain. The newest implant is considered by many to be an advance over previous models, designed to better reproduce the ankle’s natural motion and last longer.
A team of researchers reporting at the 56th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American Headache Society found that migraine attack frequency is higher in women during peri-menopause and menopause than in pre-menopause. During pre-menopause, periods are typically regular. During the menopausal transition or “peri-menopause” menstrual periods become irregular and at menopause, menstrual periods stop.
Saint Louis University researchers describe two discoveries: a molecular pathway by which a painful chemotherapy side effect happens and a drug that may be able to stop it.
More and more people are surviving their cancer but they don't need to cope with lingering pain in silence. A review paper in the Journal of Clinical Oncology describes what survivors can do.
New research on migraine to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Headache Society. Topics will cover the impact of chronic migraine on relationships and advances in headache screening and treatment protocols.
Montefiore Headache Specialist Explains Why the Longest Day of the Year Can Feel Much Longer For Headache Sufferers and How to Find Relief
Dancing eases hip and knee pain and helps older adults move better, according to a Saint Louis University study.
About 1 percent of adults report they have experienced headaches associated with sexual activity, and that such headaches can be severe. But the actual incidence is almost certainly higher, according to a Loyola University Medical Center neurologist and headache specialist.
Taking medicines for chronic pain can often lead to constipation, but a New England Journal of Medicine study shows a daily pill can get things moving again.
Standardized research methods are needed to make greater progress toward reducing the high burden and costs of chronic low back pain (cLBP), according to a Task Force report in the June 15 issue of Spine. The journal is published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health.
Positive activities, such as increasing supportive emotions, can reduce body discomfort in adults with mild to moderate chronic pain, according to research reported in The Journal of Pain, the peer-reviewed publication of the American Pain Society, www.amercianpainsociety.org.
A pilot study by Indiana University researchers found that whole-body vibration exercise may reduce pain symptoms and improve aspects of quality of life in individuals diagnosed with fibromyalgia.
A Virginia Mason study has determined that a nerve block technique which avoids the femoral nerve results in the need for less morphine and a potentially speedier recovery for orthopedic surgery patients.
In certain patients with abdominal pain after gallbladder removal (cholecystectomy), undergoing an endoscopic procedure involving the bile and pancreatic ducts did not result in fewer days with disability due to pain, compared to a placebo treatment, according to a study in the May 28 issue of JAMA.
A team of UNC School of Medicine researchers led by Mark Zylka, PhD found that reducing the enzyme PIP5K1C lessens the level of a crucial lipid called PIP2 in pain-sensing neurons, thus decreasing pain. They also found a compound that could dampen the activity of PIP5K1C and lead to a new treatment for chronic pain.
The overall quality of death of cancer patients who die in an urban Canadian setting with ready access to palliative care was found to be good to excellent in the large majority of cases, helping to dispel the myth that marked suffering at the end of life is inevitable.
The venom from marine cone snails, used to immobilize prey, contains numerous peptides called conotoxins, some of which can act as painkillers in mammals. Researchers provide new insight into the mechanisms by which one conotoxin, Vc1.1, inhibits pain.
Non-invasive focused ultrasound thermal therapy reduces pain from bone metastases
Many cancer patients endure severe pain and, by far, one of the most excruciating pain conditions is caused by oral cancer, for which even the strongest available pain medications are largely ineffective. One of the nation’s leading oral cancer treating clinicians, speaking at the American Pain Society’s annual meeting, said he believes that while prospects for major treatment advances remain bleak, a new cannabinoid-based medication may have some promise for providing meaningful pain relief.
Mobile medicine is helping chronic pain patients cope with and manage their condition thanks to new smartphone apps, which can track patients from a distance and monitor pain, mood, physical activity, drug side effects, and treatment compliance.
An international team of pain researchers led by scientists at McGill University has found that the gender of experimenters has a big impact on the stress levels of rodents used in research.
Changes in managing patients before, during and after colorectal surgery cut hospital stays by two days and reduced readmission rates, according to researchers who led a study of the approach at Duke University Hospital.
A study published in the April 23 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience found that pain from inflammation greatly reduced sexual motivation in female mice in heat -- but had no such effect on male mice.
Two new studies may offer hope for people with migraine. The two studies released today will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 66th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, April 26 to May 3, 2014.
Building on previous work that showed that deleting an enzyme in the COX-2 pathway in a mouse model of heart disease slowed the development of atherosclerosis, researchers have now extended this observation by clarifying that the consequence of deleting the enzyme mPEGS-1 differs, depending on the cell type in which it is taken away. They are now working on ways to deliver inhibitors of mPGES-1 selectively to the macrophages.
Despite decades of common use for surgeries of all kinds, the precise mechanism through which general anesthesia works on the body remains a mystery. New research led by the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania investigated the common anesthetic sevoflurane and found that it binds at multiple key cell membrane protein locations that may contribute to the induction of the anesthetic response. Their findings will appear online in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Science).
Despite its potentially harmful effects in children, codeine continues to be prescribed in U.S. emergency rooms, according to new research from UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco.
– Researchers may have identified key genes linked to why some people have a higher tolerance for pain than others, according to a study released today that will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 66th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, April 26 to May 3, 2014.
A technique using anesthesia-containing nanoparticles—drawn to the targeted area of the body by magnets—could one day provide a useful alternative to nerve block for local anesthesia in patients, suggests an experimental study in the April issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS).
For patients undergoing surgery, adding a sedative drug called dexmedetomidine can reduce the necessary doses of other anesthetic drugs, reports a study in the April issue of Anesthesia & Analgesia, official journal of the International Anesthesia Research Society (IARS).
Researchers will present findings of a study testing a double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of IV acetaminophen in post-craniotomy patients at the AANS Annual Scientific Meeting.
A study led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute has helped solve a long-standing mystery about the sense of touch.
Researchers have devised a method of using a computer program to uncover pain malingering — fabricating or exaggerating the symptoms of pain for a variety of motives — that also could be used to detect deceptive actions in the realms of security, psychopathology, job screening, medicine and law.
Someone's drilling an icicle into your temple, you're throwing up, and light and sound are unbearable.
In a report published in the April edition of the Journal of Spinal Disorders and Techniques, a Johns Hopkins team says that only 10 percent of orthopaedic surgeons and neurosurgeons follow professional guidelines recommending routine psychological screenings of patients prior to major surgery for severe back and leg pain.
Rheumatology expert is available to offer commentary about the recent FDA public meeting on fibromyalgia (FM), including shortcomings in the current treatment paradigm for people with FM, why focusing on sleep quality could be the key to better treatment and what advances are being made on the frontiers of research today.
Migraine sufferers who experienced reduced stress from one day to the next are at significantly increased risk of migraine onset on the subsequent day.
One in eight visits to a a doctor for a headache or migraine end up with the patient going for a brain scan, at a total cost of about $1 billion a year, a new University of Michigan Medical School study finds. And many of those MRI and CT scans – and costs – are probably unnecessary, given the very low odds that serious issues lurk in the patients’ brains.
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